Connecticut's slow jobs recovery has helped spawn businesses that help people find employment, get business leads or help professionals reinvent themselves. The employment situation appears to be finally improving as the jobless rate slipped to 6.7 percent in June -- the lowest since December 2008 --but that still lags the national unemployment rate of 6.1 percent. The unemployed and others seeking new opportunities have a bevy of options from LinkedIn coaches to social media detectives and reference checkers for job seekers.

Ellwanger hired Marc Halpert, LinkedIn trainer and evangelist at connect2collaborate in Fairfield. Halpert has been a LinkedIn coach for individuals and a trainer at HR departments for five years. "I have taught hundreds of baby boomers how to make their LinkedIn profiles complement their resumes and improve their employment chances."

Halpert stressed the importance of a polished resume and developing and maintaining a LinkedIn profile. "One fact of today's electronic world is that humans no longer read resumes. Resumes are fed into machines that scan for keywords for that particular search. The candidates with the most use of the keyword being sought are placed on a list and their LinkedIn profiles are reviewed by the recruiters."

Shaking hands online

For branding, Halpert suggested using the word "I" and "power verbs throughout the profile and make it sound as if you are speaking in your own voice to the reader. Include multimedia such as published writing samples, slide decks, video and podcasts so the recruiter can get a quick sense of your ability to express yourself." He advised showing volunteer work and recommendations.

Another resource is Mike Liebensohn, owner of VideoActive Productions, a Shelton-based video marketing agency helping small business owners and professionals "shake more hands over the Internet." Liebensohn founded his company in May 2011 and has a package called "Shower and Show Up."

"The client just `shows up' and we have a natural conversation for about an hour, then we go through the footage and take out the best parts to create a 90-second video. There's nothing for them to prepare. Whether it's for a business owner, professional, job-seeker -- it's so hard to get people to meet you in person these days, or even take your phone call -- but chances are they'll watch a 90-second video."

Another LinkedIn expert is Sandra Long, president of Westport-based Post Road Consulting, who urges job seekers to first target companies by selecting those that "fit your interests, passion and values. Second, focus on those companies that you can be referred into. In order to do this, use LinkedIn to sort through your contacts to find the best warm referral opportunities."

`Clean reputation'

Long teaches a class on LinkedIn Networking on how to "find valuable new connections through Groups or Advanced Search. From there, we create strategies to turn an online connection into a real world meeting and relationship."

Long, who has a background in sales and business development and was an "early adaptor" of LinkedIn in 2005, said those seeking new business leads need to have a "great personal profile that is customer friendly. What can you say that will make people call you? A welcoming video, a message in the summary, how to contact you. Secondly, for a lot of entrepreneurs it makes sense to have a company page."

For non-LinkedIn help for jobseekers, Lior Tal co-founded RepNup in Tel Mond, Israel, two years ago to help social-network users scan their profiles with advanced machine learning and computer vision technology for inappropriate postings.

"Today, most people's employment, friends, education and relationships are affected by their appearance on social networks and hence, it is critical to ensure a clean reputation," Tal said.

For job-hunters wanting to check what references might say to prospective employers, Allison & Taylor Inc. in Rochester, Mich., will confidentially contact past employers and references to ask about job performance, job description, employment dates and the reason for departure.

The firm estimated that about half of its professional reference checks find some negative feedback from a reference. Jeff Shane, executive vice president at Allison & Taylor, said, "You should never assume what other people will say about you."

Betty Wong is a freelance writer in Greenwich. Write to her at bettymwong@gmail.com